The Induction of the Marauders
by j1ack
Summary: How James, Sirius, and Peter found out Remus' secret.  One-shot. Please R&R.


James Potter had come from a long line of wizards and witches, so it was natural that he should receive his acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Because James was what some would call a social butterfly, it was also natural that he should make many friends within the first few weeks of Hogwarts, but he was particularly interested in one person whom he had met during Defense Against the Dark Arts class, a boy named Remus Lupin. It was a few months into the school year, and Remus seemed to disappear every so once in a while. When Remus had to go, nothing could stand in his way. He always insisted that he couldn't go with James, or anyone for that matter, to do anything. James had his suspicions, of course, but he wanted to make sure. So on one clear, crisp night in October, James gathered two of his most trustworthy friends, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, and followed Remus on one of his midnight escapades.

"What do you think he's doing, James?" asked Sirius.

"He probably just comes out here to meet with some girl," Peter concluded.

"So he's meeting a girl once a month at the full moon?" James said, "I don't think so."

The realization was obvious on Sirius' face. "You think he's a..."

"Shhh!" James shot at Sirius and pointed to the clearing where they had arrived, the clearing with the whomping willow. The gnarled roots of the willow sunk into the moist ground, and its long limbs reached up to the sky, swaying slightly. Dumbledore had mentioned the willow in his opening speech in the beginning of the year, and he made it clear that this tree was not to be messed with.

Remus had taken an extremely long tree branch and was poking around the tree's roots.

Sirius instinctively moved forward to prevent his friend from being thumped in the face by a tree branch, but James put an arm across his chest, stopping him. Sirius looked at James questioningly, but James continued to watch the scene in the clearing with curiosity.

Remus had seemed to have poked a certain spot between the tree's roots, and the limbs that were once swaying came to a complete stop. Remus then threw the tree branch aside and walked toward the tree. It seemed to the trio standing in the trees that Remus had simply disapearred, but they knew that there was probably some secret passage into which he entered.

James looked back at Sirius and Peter and gestured his head toward the tree. Sirius and Peter looked at each other and nodded back at James. The trio then sprinted across the clearing and slid into the passage into which Remus had just entered, and not a moment too soon, either. A huge tree branch thumped into the ground where Peter had just been a few seconds ago. The tree pulled its branch back, leaving a deep impression in the soft dirt and leaves.

"Let's keep moving," James encouraged, although his voice was shaking slightly, and he continued down the tunnel followed by Sirius and then Peter.

The trio continued down the tunnel, and although it looked as if people had passed through recently, it definitely looked as old as Hogwarts, if not older. There was little light from the full moon coming from the tunnel, so some distance down the tunnel they had to create light with their wands. Sirius was against this at first , what if they ran into Remus? But they needed the light to go any farther, so they cast lumos one at a time and continued.

When they finally reached the end of the tunnel, it felt as if they had walked several laps around a quidditch pitch. James was surprised that they hadn't run into Remus or heard of him the entire way. Did he perhaps run down the entire length of the tunnel? The time, as the three boys soon discovered, had changed drastically. It was the eerie time between night and dawn, twilight. The sky had turned a faint shade of red around the hills that surrounded an old shack. It was about three stories high and looked as if a light gust of wind could send it toppling to the ground. What little there was of a paint job left was sparse, discolored, and peeling to reveal the gray-brown wood beneath.

Although the house's appearance wasn't the thing that shocked the trio the most. As they came out of the tunnel, they heard a howl that pierce the night like a knife. A bent over figure staggered out of the shack, appearing to get smaller as he finally fell on the ground with an audible thud. James was the first to sprint toward the figure, and he was quickly followed by Sirius and Peter.

The figure was, to no one's surprise, Remus Lupin. When he looked up at the three boys, he looked down in shame because he knew that some of the few friends that he had made in the short time he had been at Hogwarts had already discovered his embarrassing secret.

"You three will tell everyone that I'm a werewolf, I suppose. Then I'll be the social outcast again. That's the way it always works." Remus looked like a small child who had just been given the keys to a candy store but had them snatched away a minute later.

"I don't know about those two, but I'm not going to tell anyone. I'll even help you if I can," Sirius said with a smile.

"I'm going to too," James stated with confidence.

"Wait, you can't help me. I can't be helped. I'm an animal," Remus stated.

"No, you're not," Sirius corrected. "You are a human being with, a... furry little problem. And just like all human beings, you can be helped by your friends."

"Peter, are you in?" James asked.

"Yeah, sure. Anything to help," Peter said.

"Then it's settled. We three can help you. You don't have to be afraid anymore." Sirius assured.

If only they had known what fear really was.


End file.
